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River report


Navigator

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Yesterday, I had the pleasure of spending the day with Rick Martin and his father-in-law, Sonny Svoboda. We were fishing the Sartell area of the river...along with about...hmmm...100 other boats (mostly pleasure boating traffic).

On this day, we experimented with everything!! Trolling, pitching, casting, dragging...ect. The smallies were scattered, either by the higher than usual water or its dingy color. Normally at this time of the year, I should be able to see my lure about 2 to 3' below the surface. We had 10" of visibility. Also, at this time of the year pitching plastics is my goto presentation. We couldn't buy a fish doing this.

What worked...trollin' trollin' trollin'...all day. It may sound a little boring...but then again I like seeing my customers catch fish. Eventually, the weather won (a storm moved in) and we had to get off the water by late afternoon. All-in-all it was a fun day with a couple of great gentlemen. Nav

sonnyshawg.jpg
rickshawg.jpg


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Jon Navratil
Navigator Guide Service
www.naviguides.com
Serving Central MN rivers & lakes

[This message has been edited by Paul Waldowski (edited 07-20-2003).]

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We are fishing a little south of where nav. is but we have done well. Throwing plastics and some topwater action. Yesterday's biggest s.m. was a 20 1/2". We also boated walleye, cats and northern. The week before casting towards shore was the ticket but with the water dropping the fish seem to have moved away from the shore as most of our fish were in deeper water. We have found smallies to be bunched in prime areas, on account of the high and fast water.

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Glad to see you had a good day navigator. smally action has been great up here for 2 weeks. We tried a new spot today down by clearwater. Ended up with a few fish the biggest at 19 inches. New area for us so it was a day for guessing what to use. Good fun.

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Good reports, guys. Glad we're all getting some fish.

As the water continues dropping, up around my neck of the woods north of Brainerd, the smalljaws have just started to move back into typical holding areas-- particularly eddies behind boulders and holes on outside river bends.

Been hitting a stretch that typically goes untouched most of the season, roughly between Half Moon Lake and Crosby. It's small water here-- real nice and quaint-- but this stretch is also peaceful, offering about the simplest river fishing you can imagine. If the spot looks good, it definitely holds at least a few smallmouths. Lots of fun, too, when upon encountering a shallow rocky riffle, you can simply hop overboard and do a little wading, pulling the johnboat along the way-- cast here, cast there.

Best bait for me lately has been a black 6" Berkley Power Ribbonworm rigged on a 1/8 or 3/32oz Owner Ultrahead. Swims beautifully upcurrent, fluttering back like every smallmouth's dream food. (At least that's what you have to tell yourself wink.gif). Find a little eddy behind a boulder or logjam, pitch the worm in and hang on.

Shouldn't be too long here, we'll be seeing a more consistent topwater bite develop, so long as water levels stabilize. Then it's popper time!

-a friend,
Cory Schmidt

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Toad, Hows the water look up from the Hwy 6 & 11 boat ramp? Are the wing dams exposed? I haven't been able to get up there this year yet. But might try it next week.

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Jim,
How about, right after I get back from the trip to your lake in P Rapids-- you know, the one where I'll just show up at your cabin doorstep, uninvited wink.gif. Ever see the movie, "What About Bob?"

Okay, the real answer is, "anytime brother!"

Kevin,
The river's keeps dropping, yet curiously, it remains exceedingly turbid-- haven't seen it this dirty so late into summer . . . maybe ever. Not sure what's going on. I've been told that there's an increasingly problematic erosion situation occuring up around the Grand Rapids area.

As of last week, you could just begin to see the tops of some of those rock areas. So if the water would just clear up a bit, fishing would be absolutely primo. If you go this weekend, let me know how it goes. Thanks!

-a friend,
Cory

[This message has been edited by Toad (edited 07-25-2003).]

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  • 3 weeks later...

The river's way down but the fishing is picking up. We went out last night, had the stretch from the 101 bridge to the Crow/Miss junction all to our selves. The smallies are bunching up in the deeper current breaks with the water as low as it is. We took 5 out of one hole, 2 pushing 20". The cats were slow and small, woulda thought the cat bite would be better. 3 10lb+ carp on crawlers and something that just headed out to the middle of the river, snapped the line and kept on going!!! Be careful out there, especially at night. The river's way shallow in places, even for a 12' or 14' with a small motor. We left some aluminum to mark the bigger rocks!

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Fished the Elk River Area this weekend. The River is tough to navigate unless you have a boat designed for 6 inches of water and lots of rocks. The boat landings in both Elk River and Dayton are well below the concrete with at least 6-10 ft of sand to drive on before you get to water.

Fishing has slowed down, but they can be caught. In 8 hours of fishing, I caught 14 smallies, 2 Walleye, and 1 northern. ( I was only trying to catch Smallies). I had 3 bass between 17 & 18 inches. I had one on that broke my 12lb Magnaflex like it was 2lb test. That was the first bite of the day and I had forgot to check the drag.

The walleyes were 16.5 and 17 inches. Caught both on crankbaits. Those were the first two Walleyes this Southerner has caught.

Until next weekend...

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How big of a boat can you get on the river by Elk River? I have a 17' with a 90. Is that too big for that stretch? How was the boat traffic this weekend?

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Unfortunately, there are too many rocks and shallow areas to take a boat that big. There are spots with some deep water, 8-12ft, but the 6 inch deep spots will come up fast. My boat is taking a beating, but it's relatively cheap and I'm not too concerned about it.

You can drift down the river relatively easy with a bigger boat, it's just impossible to get back to where you started. I like to have 2 people and park a vehicle south of where I start. Two weeks ago, I had a friend leave his vehicle in Elk River, then we drove up to Monti and put in. It took about 7 hrs to drift down to ER, but it was fun and there lots of good fishing.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • leech~~
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